


Lights, a Christmas present

by mentazero



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: I can't wait for the Nekoma ova tho, M/M, Writing fluff stuff is harder than I expected, christmass fluff, hqsecretsanta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2886569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mentazero/pseuds/mentazero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Yaku that word started to mean “a profound sense of disappointment, related to the embarrassing tendency to watch the Captain of his volleyball team’s back intensely, while they were in the locker room”, and for too much time, he wasn’t able to overcome that crush and try to live freely the“best years” of his life. But then, a half Russian beanpole, jumped into his life with a not required bet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights, a Christmas present

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am again. This is my entry for the HQsecretsanta made for this Christmas on tumblr. This was a nice chance for me to try to write again something in English, I hope to write something even during 2015 :> Anyway, fluff, Christmas stuff, Yaku and Lev waiting for the Nekoma OVA. I hope you're enjoying your Christmas holidays, see ya next time.

Lights.

There was something special in the Christmas lights, some kind of unique warmth, something that the other festive decorations didn’t have.

Despite the fact that Yaku wasn’t interested in Christmas in a religious way, he was basically forced to try to enjoy the “ _Spend the Christmas day with your lover_ ” things that were spread from the commercials on television and the shop windows around the city.

Yaku didn’t have a so-called “lover” though, and he didn’t even want to have one. Not after his clamorous failure with his historical crush, Kuroo Tetsurou.

Everything happened a couple of years before, when he met for the first time his charismatic teammate: Yaku wasn’t even conscious of the fact that he liked men instead of women, he was just suddenly and completely overwhelmed by the feelings that Kuroo was able to awake in him.

Kuroo was a beautiful guy, even if he used to complain about the fact that he couldn’t get rid of his bed head hair, Yaku thought that his hair were perfect. Even if the coach complained about the fact that Kuroo didn’t use kneepads, Yaku thought that his knees were perfect without kneepads and were part of his stunning charm on the court.

He tried to hide his feelings as much as he could, but Kuroo was more discerning than Yaku could even imagine. While they were walking to the gym for the practice, Kuroo started to make a long speech about how special their “ _friendship_ ” was , how great it was to be “ _teammate_ s” and how glad he was to have a “ _friend_ ” like him: Yaku didn’t even have the choice to try and confess his feelings, he had been brutally friendzoned in advance.

Yaku had to admit that a side of him was happy about what happened, at least he didn’t make a fool of himself, and he saved his friendship gloriously. His frienzoned friendship, but still a friendship.

In any case, Yaku decided to not fall in love with a teammate again, to not fall in love at all till the end of highschool, to not fall in love for the rest of his lifte if it was necessary.

**Love** : [luvh] noun,

  1. A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.




For Yaku that word started to mean “ _a profound sense of disappointment, related to the embarrassing tendency to watch the Captain of his volleyball team’s back intensely, while they were in the locker room”_ , and for too much time, he wasn’t able to overcome that crush and try to live freely the“best years” of his life. But then, a half Russian beanpole, jumped into his life with a not required bet.

 

They were at school, during lunch time. Yaku was ready to eat something and chatting with his classmates as usual, when Haiba Lev appeared in front of the door of his class asking for him:

«Can we eat something together, Yaku san?» He asked in a unusually -for him- polite tone, while torturing his own right hand with the other one.

Yaku looked around searching for something inspiring that could have helped him to find an excuse to decline the invite, but still ended up saying that “yes, of course” it was fine for him.

Yaku liked that too-tall-to-be-real first year guy, but it was still hard for him to deal with his stupidity for too much time consecutively; the practice time was enough.

They headed to the top of the school roof, Lev said that he wanted to go there to enjoy that marvellous weather, even if there were a lot of clouds in the sky and the weather was actually far from being “ _marvellous_ ”. Yaku knew that he just wanted to be alone with him and thought that it would be better for Lev, the next time, to find a better excuse not to look extremely suspicious.

They ate in silence, Yaku waited with his patient attitude for his friend to say something, but Lev was quiet, more quiet than usual, too quiet to be Lev Haiba.

«Is there something wrong, Haiba kun?» Yaku asked while looking at the dark sky, full of clouds, and ready to angrily start to pour a lot of rain over them.

«Oh? NO, nope, absolutlely not! Everything’s fine Yaku san» Lev laughed in the creepiest way ever. He played for a while with the packaging of the melon pan that he had finished to eat, before standing up and saying the last thing that Yaku wanted to hear:

«IlikeyouYakusan, do ya wanna go out with me onadate?»

Honestly talking, Yaku didn’t understand what Lev said first, but when he realised the meaning of that bunch of incoherent words, he nearly had an heart attack, or something like that.

«What did you just say?» He stuttered.

«I ask you to go with me on a real lovey-dovely date, Yaku san». He smiled, in a childish and tender way. He was nervous and excited at the same time, Yaku knew what answer he wanted to give him, but the enthusiasm in Lev eyes hit him straight in the face, making it impossibile for him to say a single word.

Lev was looking at him, his expression was full of hope, a slight smile on his lips was forcing Yaku to stay silent, again. But then:

«I can’t. I can’t go out with you. I can’t go out with anyone. It’s not your fault – Yaku had heard that sentence in a lot of romantic movies – the problem is me”.

«Are you trying to say that you don’t like me? I’m not good looking enough to go out with you?» That could have been one of the problems in the relationship between the two of them: Lev was childish and insistent most of the times, the exact opposite of Yaku.

«I’ve only said that I can’t go out with you». Yaku blushed, he had never thought about Lev in “ _that_ ” way, he didn’t even know that Lev was gay, or bisexual, or whatever he was (he heard him talk about girls with Yamamoto several time, so he had assumed that he was not interested in guys), but most importantly he had promised himself to not think about love ever again, mostly if that topic included one of his teammates for the second time.

«Can I still try to make you fall for me?» The look on Lev face was way more serious than before, for a moment, Yaku thought that he expected to receive an asnwer like that and he was ready to counterattack.

Yaku shaked his head, he moved slowly his lips saying a weak “ _No_ ” even he was sure that it wasn’t a thing for which usually people ask for permission.

«Let’s make a bet – Lev was still serious, his voice tone was solemn and deep -I will make you fall for me before the end of the year. If I’ll be able to do it, we will live a fabulous love story together, if I fail…Well, I will shave my head and I will call myself the “bowling ball head of the Nekoma volleyball team” for the rest of the time that I’ll spend in this school».

Yaku didn’t know why he had to accept a bet like that, it was stupid and pointless, but he had nothing to lose.

«Do whatever you want».

Lev smiled again, and Yaku felt sorry for him. For a moment he thought about his crush for Kuroo and how lucky he had been to have never openly made a confession. If Lev was smiling, after having invented a pathetic bet to not quit entirely defeated by that rejection, Yaku, in his shoes, would had probably ran away in tears embarrassed like a child who wet his pants.

And so, from that moment, Lev started to use all the tricks that he knew to succeed in his goal.

~

One of those tricks was the reason why Yaku was near the train station, during that cold winter day, wearing a big trench coat that made him seem even smaller than he was and a warm woolen scarf around his neck, waiting for Lev to pick him up.

It started to snow. Yaku swore inside, regretting to have accepted to go out with that too-tall-to-have-a-decent-amount-of-blood-in-his-brain guy. He was late, terribly late.

«I wish I were home» muttered with the mouth hidden by the scarf.

~

Lev did a lot of nice things for Yaku during the previous months. He walked him to the train station after school almost every day, he paid for his lunch several times, he even bought him a new pair kneepads when he noticed that the ones that Yaku used during practice were riuned.

The amount of attentions that Lev gave to Yaku was more than awkward, though. Lev started to appear in front of Yaku’s classroom door every day, and that too-tall-to-be-ignored first year made his classmates bring up some uncomfortable questions: «Who’s that guy?» «What’s that first year doing here?» «What does he want from you?» And Yaku didn’t know what to answer.

Saying the truth was a completely excluded hypothesis and saying that Lev was just trying to get his attention to have the chance to do some extra volleyball practice with him ended up increasing the curiosity of the other students. It was awkward, definitely awkward.

Having Lev always around him also helped Yaku to forget about Kuroo in “ _that_ " way, and helped him to not get hurt by the fact that the Captain of the Nekoma volleyball team seemed to be interested in someone, a certain someone who texted him at least two hundred times during the day and forced him to constantly look at his mobile -thing that made him look like Kenma: an  overly attached boyfriend of his own mobile phone. No one knew who that "someone" was, but Yaku wasn’t, surprisingly, interested in knowing it.

But the thing that Yaku appreciated the most was the fact that every single time in which he felt tired, or stressed, or sad, Lev was ready to listen to him and cheer him up.

Yaku clearly remembered a day in which his performance during practice was particularly awful, he was tired and demotivated. He thought that he wasn’t a good Libero after all, he was just an average player who didn’t have any chance to be a pro one day.

When he went to the locker room -and thinking about the moment made Yaku feel sad again- he sat down on the bench with his head in his hands and, after making sure that he was alone, he started crying. Hot tears streamed down his face, his schoulder were shaking, even if he tried as hard as he could to calm down immediately.

He didn’t want to be seen in that condition, but before he could come to his senses, someone entered the room.

That was yet another proof of the reliability of Murphy’s Law: if you don’t want a certain someone to see you in a pathetic situation, that certain someone will see you for sure.

«What happened Yaku san? Are you injured?» worried, Lev caught him up quickly, he stood in front of him and bent his knees in order to be at the same height as him.

Even if Yaku was reluctant first, they talked a lot about all the Yaku concerns, and he discovered how Lev’s kindly words could be the best medicine for his moments of dejection.

Lev was the number one supporter of Yaku’s libero skills, Yaku knew it already, but in the moment when he heard Lev say it out loud, he started to believe that maybe, more than maybe, he really was a worthy volleyball player, and he didn’t have to underestimate himself.

Lev didn’t seem like a caring person, but it was just an appearance, Yaku din’t seem to be ready to fall in love again, but it was just an appearance.

~

«Merry Christmas, Yaku san!»

«You’re late, dumbass».

Lev was incredibly cute with his Santa Claus hat and his Christmassy handmade sweater with a reindeer on it, Yaku thought, regretting immediately to have thought it.

«What are we going to do, Haiba kun?”

«Lev, Lev, call me Lev. Anyway, we’re going to go at my place, I have a surprise for you». He grabbed Yaku’s hand tightly, dragging him to the bus stop to take the bus to get to his house.

Yaku blushed violently, he wanted to resist, but he was too embarrassed and amazed by the idea of having to go his friend house to be able to react in some way.

He was going straight into the lion’s den and was not ready to do it. He wanted to say something, but what?  _I don’t want to come at your place, because I’m scared_. Scared of what? They were just two friends that were going to spend the Christmas day together.

Lights.

There were lots of flashing lights on the Christmas three that was in the living room of the Haiba house, despite the fact that there were only the two of them, and that was the first time in which he went there, that house was incredibly warm and cozy, Yaku felt “at home”. It was a strange feeling, almost scary.

«You asked me about some Russian traditions, do you remember?»Said Lev from the kitchen.

Yaku didn’t really remembered to had asked something like that, but probably he really did it months before when he pretended to be interested to learn more about Lev.

«Yes, of course». Liar; he started to feel a bit guilty, he used to underestimate himself as a player, but he also used to underestimate the interest that Lev had in him.

When Lev headed back to the living room he brought with him two cups of hot cocoa, he handed one to Yaku and he sat on the sofa next to him.

«I tried to cook a traditional Russian cake, with apples and raisin, it’s called Shar…Sharlotka, or dammit, something like that, but…I can say that my failure is the main reason why we’re drinking hot cocoa here and we’re not eating a cake in the kitchen. I’m an Ace on the court, but I deserve to be benched when it’s time to play in the kitchen». Yaku’s crystalline laughter swept away the tension that he had experienced just before, they started a long conversation about the fact that the only Russian word that Lev knew was “ _panini_ ” -Yaku didn’t say anything about the fact that it wasn’t a Russian word- and that when he was searching for something special to tell Yaku about Christmas in Russia, Yaku didn’t remember even that detail, but according to what Lev was saying he complained about the fact that he found pointless for Japanese people to clebrate Christmas without a religious or cultural reason to do it, he discovered something really disappointing:

«Well, there’s the Orthodox Church in Russia so… They follow a different calendar, it’s called Gregorian calendar and basically Christmas in Russia is in January and not today».

Yaku heart was racing, and he didn’t even understand why. Lev was really trying to impress him, he tried to make a cake, he remembered all the things that he randomly told him and most of them were said without a purpose.

Maybe, he really was impressed.

Lev was childish, sometimes, more the sometimes, he was noisy and irresponsible, but he was also caring, nice, and interesting in more than a way. Yaku thought, and he almost choked while swallowing the hot cocoa, that Lev really seemed to be in love with him.

**Love** : [luvh] noun,

  1. A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection .




For Yaku that word started to mean “ _a profound sense of disappointment, related to the fact that he felt guilty because he had underestimate someone else’s feelings, and now he was just enjoying the warm sense of affection that he was receiving without even deserving it_ ”.

 

They kept talking for hours, Yaku didn’t even notice that the Christmas day was about to end, and he had to go back home before the subway closed.

«I think…That it’s better for me to go now, thanks for everything Lev» he said kindly, while he watched the flashing lights on the tree.

«Oh, no, nope! You can’t, not now. I have to tell you something before you go» the clock marked midnight.

Lev got up from the couch and took one of the boxes that were placed under the Christmas tree:

«While searching for Russian stuff on the internet, I read a nice story about Saint Stephen’s day – he watched the wall clock behind him – today. Many years ago there was the custom to announce the engagement to fellow villagers during this day» he knelt in front of Yaku, he blushed slightly -probably because he felt insanely stupid while doing that thing, and he opened the little box, showing to the Libero a small silver ring.

«I can’t, of course, announce an engagement to anyone, but the year is almost over so, I’d like to ask you directly this time…Yaku, have I won the bet?»

Yaku stood in silence.

He didn’t want to watch Lev in the eyes, so he kept looking at the flashing lights, even if his eyes started to hurt:   
«This is the most absurd, stupid and childish, but beautiful engagement proposal that I’ve ever heard» he said, finally.

«Have you received a lot of engagement proposal Yaku san?» Lev sounded worried.

«Yes-NO! I meant, in general…I-» he muttered and covered his face with his hands trying to hide his giant embarrassment.

«…So?»

«So, you won» he whispered softly, without moving his hands from in front of his face.

«I’M NOT GOING TO BE A BOWLING BALL HEAD! I’M SO HAPPY I WANT TO SCREAM, MERRY SAINT STEPHAN’S DAY, YAKU SAN».

«You’re screaming already».

~

Lights.

There was something special in Saint Stephan’s lights, some kind of unique warmth, something that the other festive decorations didn’t have.

Despite the fact that Yaku wasn’t interested in that festivity in a religious way, he was glad to enjoy the “Spend Saint Stephan’s day with your lover” thing that Lev invented just for the two of them.

Yaku didn’t have a so-called “lover” some hour before, but then, he was happily relaxed in the arms of a too-tall-to-not-be-stupid guy, who gently put his lips on his forehead and then said «I love you, Yaku san».


End file.
